Decathlon and FirstCry: a specialism-for-audience trade, and where it might go next
Decathlon Sports India and FirstCry announced this week that more than 500 of Decathlon's kids' sports products, apparel, footwear, accessories and equipment across sports including football, cricket, swimming, badminton, cycling and fitness, are now listed on FirstCry's platform. FirstCry brings more than 25 million registered users across India's metro and Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets. Sankar Chatterjee, CEO of Decathlon Sports India, put it simply: the collaboration is there to support parents in encouraging movement, play and active participation in sport. Supam Maheshwari, FirstCry's CEO and founder, framed it as combining FirstCry's understanding of young families and its nationwide reach with Decathlon's sporting expertise.
Look past the headline and the mechanic underneath it is worth studying, whatever category you are in. FirstCry did not need to build sportswear expertise it does not have, and Decathlon did not need to build the family-audience reach it does not have either. Each brought the thing it is genuinely good at, and neither had to spend years and budget building the thing the other already owns. That is a cleaner trade than most partnerships manage, and it is the shape worth copying: find the retailer whose audience you want, who does not have expertise in your category, and work out what you could bring them that costs them nothing to say yes to.
The principle behind it is bigger than this one deal, and it is worth keeping in mind whatever size you are. When two businesses each have a strong audience of their own, and those audiences do not really overlap, collaborating gives each of you access to reach you would otherwise have to build from nothing. That works two ways. You might sell something completely different to the same customer, the way Decathlon and FirstCry both sell to the same parent but never for the same product. Or you might work in the same market with a different offer entirely, a product brand and a service brand sitting either side of the same purchase, say, rather than two brands chasing the same sale. Either shape works just as well for a small business as it does for a business the size of Decathlon. A boutique nursery brand and an independent baby photographer share exactly the same young-family audience without ever competing for the same purchase, and a simple cross-promotion or joint offer benefits both of them. The one real condition is that you are not competing with each other. The moment two brands are chasing the same sale, collaboration stops being an opportunity and becomes a conflict of interest. Find the brand that shares your customer without wanting your sale, and you have found something genuinely worth pursuing.
The timing makes sense against the wider market too. Research from IMARC Group puts India's kidswear market at roughly $22.6 billion in 2025, growing at close to 6% a year through to 2034, and names it the fastest-growing kidswear market in the Asia-Pacific region. That is genuinely worth attributing to IMARC by name rather than presenting as neutral fact, since market-research firms have their own commercial reasons for painting a category as attractive. But it corroborates the direction Decathlon and FirstCry are betting on: more Indian parents spending on children's sport and activewear, not fewer.
For now, this is an online listing, not a physical concession. Nothing in the announcement points to stock going into FirstCry's stores. But it is worth watching. If an online partnership like this proves itself, the natural next step for a relationship like this is deepening it, and putting some stock into physical space is the obvious way to do that. I would not be surprised to see this move into FirstCry's stores if the online version works. Watch this space.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What exactly have Decathlon and FirstCry agreed?
Decathlon Sports India has listed more than 500 kids' sports products, apparel, footwear, accessories and equipment, on FirstCry's e-commerce platform in India. It is an online marketplace tie-up giving Decathlon access to FirstCry's more than 25 million registered users. There is no confirmed physical retail or in-store element to the deal as announced.
Why does a deal like this work?
Because each side brings something the other does not have and would be expensive to build. FirstCry gets a credible new sports category to offer its existing family audience without having to design or manufacture it themselves. Decathlon gets access to a large, existing family audience it would otherwise have to build from scratch. Neither side is paying to acquire something the other cannot already supply.
Could this become a physical retail partnership?
Nothing has been announced beyond the online listing. But a proven online partnership is often the natural first step before a deeper commercial relationship, including physical space in stores, so it is worth watching how this develops rather than assuming it stops at e-commerce.
Can a small brand use this kind of collaboration, or is it only for businesses the size of Decathlon?
It works at any size. The principle is that two businesses with a strong audience each, and no real overlap between those audiences, can collaborate to reach each other's customers without either side having to build that reach from scratch. That can mean selling something completely different to the same customer, or working in the same market with a different offer. A boutique nursery brand and an independent baby photographer share the same young-family audience without ever competing for the same sale, and a simple cross-promotion benefits them both. The one condition is that you are not competing with each other. The moment two brands want the same sale, it stops being a collaboration and becomes a conflict of interest.
If you are exploring a route to market through a retailer that already has the audience you want, working out the right kind of partnership is exactly what we help brands think through at The Nest. Come and have a conversation.
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